Here’s a really cool tutorial on creating some slick buttons in Photoshop. The tutorial uses CSS sprites at the end to set up the functionality of the buttons. Pretty nice.
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admin
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admin
This is classic. Yes, This actually happened. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Person A: how can i fix the volume on my computer
Person A: ive tried everything
Me: bottom right hand corner there’s a little speaker icon. did you turn up the sound there?
Person A : its all the way up, no sound?
Person A: :S
Me: speakers are plugged in? light is on?
Person A: ohh… i dont think i have speakers
Me: you’re kidding right?
Person A: uhh i dont think so. i dont see any!
Me: there’s your problem
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admin
I think when it comes to designing Web sites most designers get to the bottom of the page and run out of ideas. Sprey Studios posted a really cool article that’s sure to help though, 48 Excellent Examples Of Blog Post Footer Designs. Pretty cool.
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admin
Automattic, the parent company of WordPress founded by Matt Mullenweg released this interesting P2 theme. Of course I had to give it a try and what better place than on Dailything.com. It seems an almost idlyllic fit since Dailything is a short collection of ideas and observations.
The one thing I’m not liking however, is the lack of a title. I may have to go in and tweak it some so a title shows up if I plan on sticking with the theme. For right now, though, I’m going to give it a few days and see how it goes. Maybe the quick entry feature will encourage more frequent posting.
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Tweeting About Twittering
admin
A long, long time ago I joined Twitter. That was before all the celebrities and the mad rush by the general masses caused it to explode into a web phenomena. Back then it was more frequently down than up and the “We’ll be right back” message was an hourly occurrence. I’ve got to say Twitter has come a LONG, LONG way but with it’s growth there are some things that have begun to annoy me. Here’s my short list of pet peeves on Twitter.
1. Not everyone on Twitter is a “social media expert”.
Just because you had a MySpace and a Facebook account with 5,000+ followers you are not a social media expert. You are a social chameleon not an “expert”. You had FOLLOWERS and most likely you had them because you followed THEM first. Don’t let it go to your head.
If you’re Twittering for a business or representing your company ask you IS or IT guy to see the stat log. How many visitors are coming from Twitter? Ask your sales manager how many sales referrals are coming from Twitter? How many buyers mentioned they received more information on Twitter? and how many clients received customer service (more than you Twittering the phone number to your customer service department) on Twitter? If it’s not impacting your companies bottom line in a positive way you’re just Twittering on company time and your boss is letting you get away with it.
2. More than just links.
You got a blog, that’s great. We read your blog. Yup, we do. We don’t need the automatic Twitter announcing you blogged. We’ll get to your website in a while. Don’t worry. People who haven’t found your website will see it if you link it in your profile. Honestly, I find 99% of the new sites I add from Twitter users by viewing their profile.
If you’re using a plug-in in WordPress or Drupal, disable it. It’s annoying.
3. Adds are rhetorical.
Hey, I added you! I want to see what you have to say. Say something clever. Direct Messaging me with a link to your site and a spammy comment, not clever. In fact, annoying as hell. Don’t do it. Turn off your auto answer bot or whatever you’re using to do it and just don’t.
If you feel you MUST do it because you can’t help yourself go into therapy. You have an obsessive compulsive disorder. I read your profile. I know what you’re about. I saw the link to your website. I’ve been there. Enough said. Don’t spam me.
4. I’m Dating You
Secretly I’m dating you. You don’t know it but I am. I’m doing it through Twitter. Ask people what they look for when they add someone on Twitter and what they look for when in a partner and, surprise-surprise, most of the time they’re the same.
Don’t constantly bitch about how your boss hates you or how your parents lock you in the closet or about school work or being sick all the time. No one wants to read it and they won’t. Ever notice how your friends just kind of wander off or lose interest when you’re whining? Same thing on Twitter. There are plenty of other people’s twitters to read. Don’t make us dump you.
If you found this interesting and would like to see what I have to say in 140 characters or less you can follow me on twitter by adding @loydschutte.
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New Insight Into Blogging Shows - gasp - It's Profitable
admin
Marc Penn over at Wall Street Journal came out with some insteresting statistics about blogging today including the fact that roughly 1% of Americans are blogging for some source of income with 2% of those earning enough to make it their PRIMARY income. And people used to laugh and call blogging a “passing fad”.
Blogging isn’t dead, in fact it’s alive and well. Most of the blogs are now very targeted, niche blogs about specific topics, and they seem to do very well. My own YosemiteBlog.com is finally moving into fruition and soon I may be able to join that 2%.
Here are some more interesting statistics about bloggers from the WSJ article:
Wall Street Journal: Demographically, bloggers are extremely well educated: three out of every four are college graduates. Most are white males reporting above-average incomes. One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall.
It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year. Bloggers can get $75 to $200 for a good post, and some even serve as “spokesbloggers” — paid by advertisers to blog about products. As a job with zero commuting, blogging could be one of the most environmentally friendly jobs around — but it can also be quite profitable. For sites at the top, the returns can be substantial. At some point the value of the Huffington Post will no doubt pass the value of the Washington Post.
The barriers to entry couldn’t be lower. Most bloggers for hire pay $80 to get started, do it for about 35 months, and make a few hundred dollars. But a subgroup of these bloggers are the true professionals who work at corporations, serve as highly paid blogging consultants or write for sites with substantial traffic.
Personally, I realized a long time ago niche blogging is the same as publishing a newspaper directed at your target audience. The real difference is you’re publishing to the web making it 1000 times easier for readers to find it. Twenty years ago a small, independent paper would expect maybe 100 readers that they’d have to work really hard for. Today the average blogger will have 100 page reads within the first week. If they’re adept at using Twitter and have good content that number would be substantially higher.
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The New Greeks - Blindtextgenerator.com
admin
Lets say you’re working on a web project and you only have a certain number of pixels wide for some text. Maybe you’re tired of the traditional greeking and want to do something different to show your designer flair. My friend have I got the site for you, blindtextgenerator.com
blindtextgenerator.com does what similar sites do by allowing you to pick the number of paragraphs that you want but it does so much more. See what your font would actually look like in pixels, change the greeking to Kafka, Panagram (the quick brown fox), a-z A-Z 1-9 (great for picking font families and faces), or even use an excerpt from the play Cicero in original or english.
Open up the advanced options and you can even choose from a palette of regular fonts found on the web, change the font weight, style, line height, font size and then, when you’re all done, grab the css for it right there on the page.
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Yahoo! Pulls the Plug on Flickr for AT&T and Verizon Subscribers
admin
If you’re lucky enough to have been an SBC or Verizon internet subscriber who gets Flickr free then it’s time to dig out your wallet. Yahoo! (current owner of Flickr) has decided that one way out of it’s ailing monetary troubles is to begin charging people for Flickr who had previously been receiving it free as part of their higher-end internet service package.
Flickr: AT&T and Verizon Internet Services have reworked their broadband packages and will no longer be offering Flickr pro to subscribers after January 31, 2009.
Don’t panic! None of your photos or videos will be deleted, but if you have a free account you will be subject to a few limits. If you upgrade again, all of your photos will be waiting for you. Any of your sets that disappear will magically reappear when you renew or upgrade.
If you decide to upgrade to Flickr Pro at the regular price of $24.95, you’ll also get 2 more months at no cost.
Unfortunately I think this tactic is going to have the reverse effect on Yahoo! and we’re going to see a mass migration from Flickr as accounts begin to expire. I, myself have been worried about the state of Flickr and the fate of my photos should Yahoo! decide to pull the plug.
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Thanks Google
admin
After almost a year the red screen of death that warned everyone my site was purportedly an attack site has been removed. Thanks Google.
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Flickr: Say What?
admin
So Flickr has changed their deal with AT&T and Verizon for internet subscribers, no more free Flickr Pro accounts. Ok, I can deal with that. But the other day I got a Flickr mail saying my account was about to expire… in 2010!
Flickr says my account is about to expire...in 2010
Seriously, is Yahoo! this desperate for money that they’re going to start using nagware on people whose accounts are paid in full for 2 years? Google, please by Flickr. You deserve my money more than Yahoo!. They’re obviously too stupid to know that alienating customers is not a good business practice.